this week, ge is shuttering this plant in winchester, virginia, its last u.s. factory producing plain incandescent lightbulbs. forcing millions to switch to compact fluorescents. most of which are made overseas. >> this is edison's private experimental room at the laboratory. he was working on ways improving the electrical lamp. >> reporter: the great inventor would be torn about the change. >> on the one hand, he would have been disappointed. on the other hand, edison was somebody who was looking forward. one thing that he was very interested in, was there more efficient ways to generate electricity? he would have seen that as the future. >> reporter: the incandescent, nor tors you for getting by on few hours sleep, he wanted to transformed the world into a 24-hour culture by lighting up the night. >> the light bulb going off over your head, that's representing edison and his accomplishment. >> reporter: but it's e inefficient. they use 75% less energy. even those could be soon obsolete. but these don't need a standard fixture. imagine your entire wall as a li